I Blame Ernest

"To have come on all this new world of writing, with time to read in a city like Paris, where there was a way of living well and working, no matter how poor you were, was like having a great treasure given to you." - Ernest Hemingway, A Moveable Feast
The realist in me knows it's silly to fantasize about sitting in a crowded left bank cafe within shouting distance of Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald. It's absurd to pine for a 1920s intellectual cafe culture that no longer exists. I'll just have to get over not having the chance to overhear a conversation between Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir at Café de Flore.
But the idealist in me hopes that some time in the near future, books and words and thoughts and revelations about the human condition will matter more than social media gurus, facebook apps, $5 bottles of designer water and meme bandwagoning.
I'm tapped out this morning, and have run back into the arms of an old lover: books. Glorious, lovely, real-life, actual, sniff-the-pages books. I'll be the first to point out the irony of writing about this on my blog. Perhaps I should have shared these thoughts via a letter?

Hi, I'm Annie, I've been lurking for a while, but saw this post and had to comment! I so completely agree. While devices like the Nook and Kindle look intriguing I can't imagine not holding an actual book in my hands, feeling the paper, smelling that new book smell. It's calming isn't it?

Nichole I love this post… People are always saying how lucky our generation is that we've grown up "right in the midst" of this technological revolution. Sometimes, though, I think it just makes me nostalgic for a time I never knew. And—irony of ironies—I feel grateful that there are (what else?) books to let me escape into that other, quieter world I've never known.

I completely agree. We are lost as a culture when people start looking to twitter feeds for quotes of wisdom. It's especially hard when you have a blog to be immune but also that much enjoyable when you do escape into a book.

I completely agree. My dad says that when I was little I was perfectly happy anywhere as long as I had a book with me, and that is still so true. I love the whole sensory experience of reading an actual book (as opposed to an e-book).

I know this makes me sound like a dinosaur, but at home we have a "one computer/no smartphones" rule. We all share a desktop, and our cell phones don't have data packages. Being online for too long drains me and makes the kids too jittery.

Thank you for your words! I am so of the same mind! I blog and read blogs because that is the "thing" to do and the easiest way to communicate with people. But I long to return to the written word. And I will never give up my books for a kindle or ipad. No, indeed! I love reading your blog – your thoughts are so delightful!

I hear you. A friend gave me this book before I went to Paris this summer….and I need to pick it back up and finish it. I felt a little part of history as our family sat outside at Cafe de Flore (officially, my 8 year old's favorite spot in Paris) drinking cafe creme or choclat.

I find myself needing to slow things down sometimes…as the world seems to have sped up to a frenetic speed.